TSA steps up technology investments, deployments
Homeland Security secretary says in the absence of new technology, agency has done as much as it can to improve airport screening performance.
After several reports that airport screeners continue to miss threatening objects, the Transportation Security Administration recently announced almost $100 million in new spending on technology to improve the screening of passengers and checked baggage.
Within the past two months, TSA announced the purchase and deployment of new technology for airports throughout the country. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the House Government Reform Committee earlier this month that the agency may have done as much as it can to improve the performance of screeners without deploying new technology.
On June 15, TSA announced that it will roll out 44 new passenger screening portals. The doorways emit a puff of air as passengers walk through and then scan that air for traces of explosives. The agency will buy 25 machines from Smiths Detection of Pine Brook, N.J., for $3.6 million, and 19 from General Electric of Wilmington, Mass., for $3.2 million. All equipment must be delivered by September.
TSA plans to install 100 additional machines at the nation's largest airports by January 2006.
In May, TSA announced that it would spend about $80 million on new in-line explosive- detection systems, which are put behind ticket counters to screen checked baggage. The agency will purchase 43 machines from General Electric for $51.6 million, and 32 from L-3 Communications of Woburn, Mass., for $28.1 million.
TSA spokeswoman Deirdre O'Sullivan said the agency had previously made agreements with airports to install the in-line systems.
Chertoff also said intelligence continues to show that terrorists still regard airplanes as a significant target. "You know, the economy of this country is so dependent on air transportation that we have to be careful to preserve that system and its integrity and public confidence in the system," he said.
Rep. William Clay, D-Mo., noted a recent report from the DHS inspector general showing that undercover agents were able to smuggle weapons past screeners at multiple airports, including those used by the Sept. 11 hijackers.
"Why are airport screeners continuing to demonstrate poor performance? And, bluntly put, are our airports and airplanes still vulnerable?" Clay asked.
Chertoff said the government needs to make decisions about which technology to pursue.
"Some of these issues are financial issues. Some of them, frankly, are making a decision to go forward," he said. "Some people don't like some of the technologies. I think we have to make a decision if we're going to keep our airports secure, that we're going to have to deploy these technologies; we're going to have to take appropriate steps to preserve privacy."
"In order to move to the next level of detection," he added, "we have to start to make sure of the one thing we have that the terrorists don't have, which is our ingenuity in getting technology out into the real world."